March 25th, 2009, Fairfax, VA— Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), in an exclusive interview with ALG News, vowed that if made law, her amendment to the GIVE Act would prohibit not-for-profit entities from using taxpayer money for lobbying, political organizing, or other partisan purposes.

“I introduced an amendment to change the ‘GIVE Act’ because it was allowing activities that I did not believe the American people want to have funded by the federal government,” said Foxx in the interview.

Foxx said that without her amendment, dollars going to President Obama’s national service programs would wind up in political coffers. According to the amendment, individuals and organizations that participate in national service programs would be prohibited from engaging in lobbying, and also prevented from co-locating upon the same premises as organizations that lobby.

Foxx believes that taxpayer money already is being misappropriated to political organizations. “I do believe that the bill without my amendment did allow the left-wing groups to be funded. That has been proven to be the case in the past. And I believe that would be the case to continue if my amendment hadn’t passed.”

“We may not be able to stop every bit of funding going to these left-wing groups, but we can certainly put in measures that will force some accountability and will force people to have to think before they violate the law,” Foxx added.

“My amendment to the ‘GIVE Act’ will not in any way hinder volunteerism. What it will do will be to add some additional constraints on the way federal dollars are spent,” Foxx said.

Foxx also proposed measures to reform government accounting practices. “I believe that we should have an accounting of every penny of government money that is spent, particularly federal dollars. We don’t do that. I would go to the zero-based budgeting if I could, but we can’t get a group together to do that,” Foxx said.

The “GIVE Act” is an Obama Administration proposal to expand the national service corps from 75 thousand to 250 thousand.

Foxx in the end opposed the bill she amended, but justified her stand. “I introduced the amendment to change the ‘GIVE Act’ because it was allowing activities that I did not believe the American people want to have funded by the federal government.”

“I had overall opposition to the bill, but there are ways that we sometimes can make a bad bill a little better. And I think we should do that every chance we get,” she added.
When asked if she expected her amendment to become law, Foxx said, “When my amendment was passed so easily by the House, there were some who felt that what would happen would be that the Senate would strip my amendment or that it would be stripped in conference. That certainly is a possibility.”

The legislation, with Foxx’s amendment included, passed the House 321-105. It has been introduced in the Senate, and cloture has already been invoked, although it can still be amended.

“What I hope is that enough Republicans and maybe some conservative Democrats understand the intent of my amendment and will fight to keep it in, whether it’s in the Senate or in conference,” Foxx said.

The North Carolina Congresswoman had a call to action to the American people, “What we need is for Americans to contact their Senators and let them know that they support my amendment and urge them to keep it in the bill.”

Dr. Virginia Foxx was reelected to her third term to represent North Carolina’s Fifth District in the United States House of Representatives in November 2008. She currently serves on the powerful House Committees on Rules.